momo, or the strange story of the time-thieves

it is time to slow down and take pleasure in the little things. such as great artistery, brilliance and playfulness with words.
michael ende is a true genious (in my opinion), and I will never outgrow him. these are my favourite quotes from this childrens book by michael ende evolving time, consumption and stress in todays world.


"Momo listened to everyone and everything... even to the rain and the wind and the pine trees - and all of them spoke to her after their own fashion."

"Many were the evenings when... she would sit by herself in the middle of the old stoe amphitheatre, with the sky's starry vault overhead, and simply listen to the great silence around her.
Whenever she did this, she felt she was sitting at the centre of a giant ear, listening to the world of the Stars... On nights like these, she always had the most beautiful dreams."

"Step, breathe, sweep, breathe, step, breathe, sweep… Every so often he would pause a while, staring thoughfully into the distance. And then he would begin again: step, breathe, sweep… "

"I'm only doing what poets do," Guido would argue. "Who knows if the stuff in the guidebooks isn't made up too, only no on remembers any more. Besides, what do you mean by true and untrue? Who can be sure what happened here a thousand or two thousand years ago? Can you?"

"[Guido's] stories had plodded along, so as to speak, but Momo's friendship had suddenly lent them wings."

"Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time.
Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.
Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart."

"The children learned these new games but unlearned something in the process: they forgot to be happy, how to take pleasure in little things, and, last but not least, how to dream."